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Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Writer Wednesday: Text-to-Speech Proofreading

Two weeks ago I mentioned that you should always read your book aloud during revisions because it allows you to hear errors. Well, today I want to take that a step further, and here's why. It's already been proven that the human brain can read misspelled words as long as the first and last letter are in the correct places. Well, think about this. You've read your own book countless times and know the story so well, that your brain is also filling in missing words. So what do you do?

Some people hire editors. If you are self-publishing, I highly recommend this. And not just because I am an editor. You are too close to your manuscript to find errors. Your brain will fill in what your fingers either didn't type or typed incorrectly. So having an editor is a must for self-publishing. (If you aren't self-publishing, get a few beta readers and/or CPs.) However…editors are human too. Yes, we do our best to make your work as error free as possible, but our brains work like yours. I read every book I edit twice. On the second time through, I know your story. That means my brain may fill in gaps (missing words or letters) just like yours will. Think about how many published books (even by the big five) still have an error or two in them. This is why.

What now? Ereaders have a cool feature that can help. It's the text-to-speech function. Over the past few weeks, this has become my favorite final pass on manuscripts. I send the Word document to my Kindle. (Handy tip: If you email the document to your Kindle with the word "Convert" in the subject line—don't actually use quotes, though—your Kindle will convert the document's formatting to make it look nice on your Kindle.) Then I let my Kindle read the book to me while I'm looking at it on the Kindle and following along. I have the Word document open on my laptop at the same time, so that when I hear a mistake, I can pause my Kindle and fix the error on my document.

While proofing the ARC of Looking For Love, my Kindle let me know I misspelled Harvard. Hearing Havard jumped right out at my ears, but not my eyes or my proofreader's eyes. So this is my new favorite proofreading method.

Someone told me about this tip over a year ago when I requested an ARC and all they had was a .pdf. I thought I wouldn't be able to read it on my Kindle. But the person told me this trick and it worked. I've been using it ever since. :)

Hi, Kelly. I have used TTS for a couple of years now for proofreading. I started on the Kindle, then searched for a better way. There are a few good TTS programs for sale on the internet, but the one I use is a free one. You can’t beat that.

Balabolka can convert different file types, including some used by e-readers. You can read along with the highlighted text, open you story in word, and switch between windows to make corrections as you go.

It even converts the text into MP3 files so you can listen on the go! TTS is great, but it takes getting used to. The best voice I’ve found is en-us, zirapro. With any TTS, watch for words like live and read. You’ll get used to them the more you listen.Here’s a link! http://www.cross-plus-a.com/balabolka.htm

I had the original Kindle before I got the Kindle fire and it worked on that too. If you go to your settings, make sure text to speech is on. Then if you tap the screen anywhere once you open a book, it should bring up a play button at the bottom of the screen. From there, you can adjust the speed.

YES, that^. Precisely.I also have an issue with sprinkling commas too liberally. The natural pause (for emphasis) that an actor reading the text might employ is not a comma in a properly written sentence. I'm still pondering an effective way to deal with this.

You know, I use TTS to read books now. My illness means I go through phases where I have problems reading. I did think of doing this, but thought of having to format the revision docs first and thought, Nah! Too much effort/cost. But you say simply adding convert to the subject line will convert the document? Superb! I'm so going to try this. Thanks so much Kelly.

About Me

Kelly Hashway fully admits to
being one of the most accident-prone people on the planet, but that didn’t stop
her from jumping out of an airplane at ten thousand feet one Halloween. Maybe
it was growing up reading R.L. Stine’s Fear Street books that instilled a love
of all things scary and a desire to live in a world filled with supernatural
creatures, but she spends her days writing speculative fiction and is a USA Today bestseller. Kelly is
also USA Today bestselling romance author Ashelyn Drake. When she’s not
writing, Kelly works as an editor and also as Mom, which she believes is a
job title that deserves to be capitalized.